While You Were Gone
by StillThereForMe
Summary: Troy guessed he had just assumed after he had apologized, everything would go back to normal, but his price for being gone for so long was apparently some permanent changes. Chyan, onesided Choy


**Disclaimer: **If not Troy's character himself, then Zac Efron would probably kill me if I had control of HSM.

Hey everybody, just submitting this to let you all know I'm alive. Not sure I'm going to be able to make that many updates on my stories this November, but I'm going to try. Probably have more in December, so bare with me till then!

This was supposed to be a oneshot, focusing on Jartha (for poppyfields13) and Chyan (naturally), but I made Troy the main character...and well, it turned into a Troy angsting fic. I think Sharpay speaks more than either of those two couples are mentioned.

Kind of like what the sequel to "Ditched" was supposed to be, but not...Inspired by the awkward scene after Troy makes up with Chad and there's that strangeness between Troy and Ryan with the line "I'm looking forward to it". And well...Disney resolved Troy ditching his friends far too easily for me I decided, so I picked out all of these interesting differences in how certain characters grew over the movie from before and after Troy was with Sharpay.

Plus, come on, Troy spending that much time with Sharpay...some of her had to rub off on him.

So, this is basically about Troy adjusting (none too well) to all his friends after ignoring them for that unspecified amount of time he was hanging with Sharpay. Which means (since it's me) a LOT of Troy torture, and now added Drama Queen!Troy. And especially for poppyfields13 since she loves it and it totally worked for this fic, well...she'll see at the end. I can't spoil it.

Oh yes, this is also the fic of a thousand couples. I swear, you could make fanfiction off of this fanfiction at how many different couples are implied in here...I honestly have no idea how that happened, and it will probably get worse in chapter two (which should be up tomorrow, but definately by the end of this week, the only reason it's not up today is because I have to get up in 5 hours right now, so I need to sleep...).

Enjoy! XD (oh yes, rated for language at the moment...but next chapter things heat up a bit)

* * *

**While You Were Gone**

**By:** StillThereForMe

**Part: **1/2

* * *

Troy didn't mind Sharpay that much anymore. Sure, she wasn't high on his list of "people I'd want to be stranded on a desert island with," but she had gotten progressively better as the summer went on. She had apparently finally learnt her lesson, and lately was backing off on the flirting since the Lava Springs talent show (either that or she was scheming some bigger plan—you could never really tell with Sharpay). But as she was at the moment, he could stand her. She'd even begun to act civil with Gabriella, which he had to give both girls major credit for—he knew it wasn't easy for either of them and it would've made the rest of his summer a lot less stressful now that they weren't shooting beams of hate from their eyes at each other whenever they were in the same room. 

That is, if a new annoyance or constant abnormality hadn't taken the place of Sharpay's overdone and unwanted flirting and rivalry with Gabriella.

And that new annoying abnormality was, ironically, still an Evans. And it wasn't the Pink Drama Queen of Terror anymore, nor her scholarship-hinting, money-waving, name-dropping father, or her always-smiling, slightly ditzy yet still threatening, constantly complimenting mother either. No, it was the one member of the Evans family Troy had always thought the least-threatening and to be honest, the one he'd paid attention to least—Ryan Evans, the quiet twin brother.

Perhaps Troy did deserve to feel out of place and confused for a while. He had traded up his friends for all the opportunities Mr. Evans and Sharpay had tempted him with for a fairly long amount of time that summer. Even though Troy had apologized and thought he was on pretty good terms with everyone, it shouldn't be that surprising that a few dynamics among his friends had changed somewhat over their time apart. But Troy didn't realize how _much_ they had changed. And the major change was that _Ryan_ was around **all the time **now.

Although to set the record straight, Troy had absolutely nothing against East High's resident Drama King. As far as Troy knew him (which admittedly, wasn't very much) Ryan was a pretty nice guy. And in retrospect, Troy supposed it made sense, that when Sharpay was dragging him all over the country club, he _had_ been in Ryan's normal spot, so he guessed Ryan must have been welcomed into his spot.

But that was over now! Troy was back with his friends, and it was lately taking everything in him to not yell at the blond boy "go back to Sharpay already!!" Especially since Ryan was constantly around the people _Troy_ was supposed to be closest to. Ryan couldn't just become really close friends with Kelsi and Zeke or Taylor or Martha or somebody Troy wasn't as close to and wouldn't mind missing a chance to chat with once and a while, no—Troy always had to find Ryan talking to the people most important to _him_, to Gabriella and Chad, and therefore had give up spending time with them so they could spend it with _Ryan_.

Troy guessed he had just assumed after he had apologized, everything would go back to normal, but his price for being gone for so long was apparently some permanent changes. Zeke, strangely enough, had been the one to tell him about all of it. The aspiring chef had become the most welcoming and informative friend since Troy had returned to the kitchen. He happily updated the Wildcat captain on all the latest twists and turns that had occurred between his friends since Troy had been with Sharpay—like his own personal Wildcats Gossip magazine. Zeke apparently never held any resentment whatsoever for anything Troy had done over the summer, and embarrassingly was the only one Troy could talk to without feeling like he was being judged or the other person was holding back from saying something to him.

Some of the newest changes were just interesting, like Jason was no longer crushing on Kelsi, and had instead started not only _liking_, but _dating_ Taylor's friend Martha. He'd heard it first officially through Zeke, although Troy had noticed something up between the two when Jason and Martha kept smiling and blushing at each other so often in the kitchen everyday that Jason had nearly dropped the fifteen plates he'd been carrying to the sink yesterday after the brown-haired girl had given him a little wave. They had, apparently, first gotten close after Ryan started directing the staff dance number.

Some were less unusual, like Zeke had come up with six new original dessert recipes that Troy just _had_ to try, and oddly enough the quiet piano girl Kelsi had been the first to try five of them. Kelsi had strangely been helping out Zeke a lot with his recipes (the girl apparently also had an interest in cooking, which Zeke had been teaching her a little bit about), and in exchange, Zeke had begun to learn piano too ("but not singing dude, that's yours and Ryan's thing!"). Zeke also, apparently thought Ryan was a nice guy, learning more about him from Kelsi—who _also_ loved him (platonically, naturally).

Sharpay's name had virtually not once been mentioned by the person whom at Troy's last check, had been her biggest fan. But her _brother's _name had come up plenty of times.

"So you guys have become pretty tight with Ryan, huh?" Troy had casually (alright, with a _bit_ of bitterness) mentioned to Zeke one day, washing his hands in the kitchen while the other boy was putting away his many spoons and knives.

"What?" Zeke had turned, confused at the sharpness of the Wildcat leader's tone.

"Pretty much all of your stories keep mentioning him—no matter what you're talking about. I'm guessing he must've gotten pretty close to all of you." Troy clarified, refusing to look up because he knew he probably wasn't being fair.

"Well, he is hanging out here all the time." Zeke laughed, apparently not catching the seriousness of Troy's voice this time. Or he was politely ignoring it. Troy realized it had suddenly become very hard to tell with Zeke as of late. "And he's a really nice guy. Why, you don't like him?"

"No, no it's not that—it's just…" The basketball captain turned off the water in the sink and stared at the metal bottom for a moment, before looking up at his friend. "_Every_ time I go to see Gabriella at the pool, _he's_ talking to her. _Every_ time I want to go shoot some hoops with Chad, he's already made plans with Ryan or Ryan's _there_."

"You can't ask Chad to shoot hoops with Ryan there?" The aspiring chef looked at him oddly.

"No! That's not what I mean…" Troy turned and leaned against the counter to try and voice his feelings correctly. "What I'm saying is, I don't think I've ever really spoken more than two sentences to the guy, and now suddenly he's like, everyone's best friend!"

"Well, while you were gone you know, he and Gabriella did become pretty good friends. But you gotta understand dude, she was like moping around here like the world was ending until she started hanging out with him. And then, I mean, Ryan and Chad got close after Chad and Taylor broke up…"

"Woah woah woah, back up—Chad and Taylor broke up? When did this happen?" Troy demanded in shock, with an almost angry look on his face.

Zeke stepped back in fear for a second. "A while ago…you didn't know about that?" Troy shook his head and seemed to relax, or at least lose his anger though his face was still painted in disbelief. "Man, you have been away for a while…"

* * *

"Did you know Chad and Taylor broke up?" Troy loudly interrupted Gabriella and Ryan by the pool shortly after he heard the belated news from Zeke. 

While Gabriella looked surprised and insulted by her boyfriend's lack of manners, Ryan gave Troy an expression that annoyed the brown haired boy even more. Normally, Ryan looked at him with an obviously-fake and polite smile, with cautious eyes that just seemed to be screaming that the blond was keeping from him—which was part of the reason Troy had never had any real desire to get closer to the Drama King, because he didn't think the other boy would want to get to know him any better with _that _expression. But this time, Ryan looked genuinely shocked and scared—which would normally make Troy feel like a bad guy, except for the fact that to Troy at least, Ryan still didn't look genuinely _innocent_. Instead, he resembled a kid who'd just got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. And that did nothing to help Troy's mood after seeing him with Gabriella.

"Uh, I'm just going to go…I'll talk to you later Gabriella." Ryan nodded to the black-haired girl with a smile and nervously darted away, with nothing but a frightened glance in Troy's direction.

"Troy!" Gabriella spun to glare at her boyfriend. "That was so rude! How could you do that?"

"Sorry." Troy answered curtly. "Did you hear what I said? _Did_ you know?"

"Yes!" Gabriella snapped back, still angry. "It happened _weeks_ ago—before even _we _had broken up—why are you so angry about it now?"

"Because I just found out about it now!" Troy shouted back at her. "From _Zeke!_ The same way I found out about Jason and Martha and half of what else has happened since I was hanging out with Sharpay!"

"Why are you shouting?" Gabriella asked in a much lower voice, glancing around at the various wealthy resort members staring at them.

Truthfully, Troy couldn't answer that. He really shouldn't be as angry as he was. Troy had honestly never thought Taylor was right for Chad to begin with—she was too smart, too unathletic (there is _no_ way Chad could be with someone as anti-sports as Taylor), too serious…opposite enough for friends but too much for anything romantic (he knew Chad had felt the same about him and Gabriella—until Chad had helped bring Gabriella back for the talent show that is). It didn't make any sense for him to be so upset over them breaking up. And it's not like he could have expected Gabriella to tell him about everything the second he started hanging out with her again. So why _was_ he shouting…? He didn't know…but it just felt right and he didn't want to think too much on it.

"Why did they break up?" Troy asked instead, in a softer voice.

"Troy…" Gabriella stared sadly back at him, then looked away. "Maybe you should ask them about that…"

"What? Why!" The Wildcat captain demanded again in a louder voice.

"It's really not my place to say Troy…" Gabriella smiled at him—the same damn innocent-but-hiding-something smile that Ryan had been giving him every time he saw the boy. She began to turn and walk away. "You should try talking to Chad…"

Troy ran over and grabbed her arm harshly, swinging the girl around to look at him. "Why can't you tell me!?" He demanded frustrated.

"Troy!" Gabriella shrieked; face scrunched in obvious pain.

When he realized she was in pain because of _him_, Troy quickly dropped Gabriella's arm like it was on fire and stepped back, shocked at his own actions. The dark-haired girl's eyes stared at him, begging for an explanation for his erratic behavior, but he couldn't give her one. He looked at the ground and then back at her sadly.

"Sorry…" The confused teenage boy then turned slowly around and walked away from the pool to get himself together.

* * *

He first headed back towards the Lava Springs kitchen, figuring that being around his friends might help with him sorting himself out. But the second he set foot in the warm, good-smelling room, he realized that wasn't going to happen. Nobody was where they were supposed to be. Even the people whose names he didn't know still didn't seem to be acting like they were supposed to. 

Jason wasn't supposed to be chatting happily while blushing with Martha. Hell, they weren't even supposed to really know each other. Martha should've been focusing on preparing her food, and talking with all the people around her—not focusing on his teammate alone and acting all coy and shyish! Jason should've been on the other side of the kitchen, gazing at Kelsi and not paying attention to what he was doing (how could the guy be flirting and successfully cleaning plates at the same time anyway? That wasn't like Jason!). Kelsi, shouldn't have been doing what she was doing either. She was supposed to be shy and sitting by herself, eating a sundae or something. Instead, she was acting more like Martha—chatting excitedly with everyone around her about a musical piece she was working on. And then Zeke kept calling her over to ask her opinion on some stew/soup thing he was making. And then Chad and Taylor were nowhere in sight.

"Hey, Troy!" He jumped at the sudden voice and looked up to see his rather tall (and normally _silent_) teammate David smiling down at him. "What's up man? You hungry? We've still got some leftovers from lunch if you want some."

David wasn't supposed to talk. He never spoke. Why was he talking? Troy looked back at the rest of the room to discover everyone's attention expectantly on him. Didn't they realize how wrong everything was? That nobody was acting the way they were supposed to? Why wasn't anyone else upset about this! People couldn't have possibly changed that much in that short a time…right?

"I can't deal with this right now." Troy muttered with a shake of his head and turned around to walk right out of the room, leaving confused friends calling his name behind him.

* * *

_Why does everything seem so fucking different?_

Troy was marching around Lava Springs, completely skirting his duties but not giving a damn. He was beginning to think that there may not be anything wrong with everyone else…it may just be him. Nothing felt right anymore, and he really didn't get why. He hadn't run into Chad (or Taylor for that matter), and he was glad he hadn't because he knew he'd just end up giving them the third degree just like he had Gabriella, and no matter what Chad (or Taylor) answered, Troy knew he wouldn't be happy with it.

It wasn't just Ryan's fault, as much as Troy would like to blame him. Ryan was only a single part of it. Troy was sure Ryan had been a reason for Chad and Taylor's breakup, and he hated that. He didn't want to believe that. And he didn't like _why_ he didn't want to believe that. Because Troy knew that had nothing to do with Ryan, and everything to do with himself. Troy had changed too.

During his spiral of thoughts, Troy had ended up by another one of Lava Springs's many pools—one which Gabriella did not lifeguard—and noticed a familiar blonde, sadly sitting by herself on the edge, her feet dangling into the water.

Was it sad that out of every living body at the country club, _she_ was now the one he felt least uncomfortable approaching?

"Hey, where's your entourage?" Troy asked in a faux-happy voice from behind the bedazzled blonde.

"I told them all to fuck off." Sharpay sighed sadly.

"Ah…really?" Troy asked interested, content in some way that he'd found somebody probably at least half as miserable as him at the moment. He kicked off his shoes, pulled off his socks, and sat right next to the morose Drama Queen (feet dangling in the water and all). "Any reason why?"

"…the bottom of your pants are getting wet you know." Sharpay observed, staring at the boy's legs.

Troy leaned back on his arms. "I don't really care right now."

"Hmm…" Sharpay nodded and leaned back with him. "…it didn't feel right without Ryan."

"Huh?"

"That's why I told the girls to fuck off. It didn't feel right walking around with them and not him."

"I know what you mean…everything seems so damn different all of a sudden."

"Yeah."

"Jason's dating Martha you know."

Sharpay leaned back further and turned to rest on her elbow, facing Troy. "Really?"

"Yup." Troy leaned back further as well, lying on his back so he was somewhat level with Sharpay, arms crossed behind his head.

"That's…odd. I didn't see that coming."

"Yeah, and I think Kelsi's dating Zeke, or she's going to be soon."

"Damn. There go my free cookies."

Troy laughed, honestly laughed, for what felt like the first time in a while. Sharpay giggled a bit too after him.

After they'd both stopped, Troy continued. "Chad and Taylor broke up."

"_That,_ I knew about it. Chad's the reason Ryan's never around anymore. And even when he is…he's…" Sharpay explained, with a bitter tone.

"Yeah?" Troy turned curiously to look at her.

"…he's not Ryan."

Troy was silent for a minute. "Ryan likes Chad."

"Yeah."

"…when did that happen?"

"Well, from what I heard, it started at that baseball game you missed when you were practicing with the Redhawks with my dad."

"…does Chad like Ryan?"

"Does he?" Sharpay turned the question back at him.

Troy rolled onto his back. "…I don't know."

"Really?" Sharpay prodded, disbelievingly. When Troy didn't answer she moved on. "I didn't really like him you know." She commented after a moment. "Zeke."

"Yeah, I kinda figured that." Troy nodded.

"I didn't really like you either."

That got Troy's attention.

He turned to look at her again. "What?"

"I mean, I like you, and I liked you, but not as much as you probably thought I did." The Drama Queen explained with a frown. "I think I _wanted_ to like you more than I actually did."

"I think I know what you mean." Troy reluctantly nodded, looking at the tiles outside the pool. "I think that's how I feel about Gabriella. I really wanted to like her. I loved the idea of being in love with her…but…"

"Trouble in paradise?" Sharpay smiled a bit evilly at him.

Troy laughed a bit forced. "I yelled at her today. For no fucking reason."

"That wasn't very nice of you."

"No, it wasn't."

"What did you yell at her about?" Sharpay questioned, meeting his eyes with her own.

"…Chad."

Sharpay just nodded, and moved her head over to rest it on Troy's chest. Unthreatened by the move, Troy brought his arm around and gripped her shoulder, holding the girl against him.

"We would've worked you know. Even if we didn't like each other as much as we were supposed to, we would've worked. We still could. Gabriella was too nice for you." Sharpay informed. "I always thought that."

"And I think she really liked me." Troy added sadly. "Probably more than she should've…"

Sharpay sat up and turned to look at him with a sad smile on her face. "Two most popular kids in school, both talented, good-looking, charismatic, we both like singing, and you've got kindness like I've got connections." The Drama Queen laughed a bit. "And we probably like each other equal amounts. And we've got something else in common too."

"…I'm jealous of Ryan." Troy finally admitted aloud.

Sharpay nodded, and stood. "If you ever really want to try us out for real Troy…well, I've always got a spot open for you. "

"Where're you going?"

"To see Taylor."

"Oh," Troy nodded, sitting up. "…you going to say anything to her?"

"No." Sharpay answered quickly. "I'm jealous of Ryan for that too…that he can be so open about that."

"…I think I'm going to talk to Chad." Troy stood, grimacing as his wet feet touched the dry ground.

"Break a leg." Sharpay smiled bitterly. "And tell me what happens later."

* * *

God...I tortured Sharpay...I never thought I'd ever do that. Forgive me! 

That's really the angstiest Sharpay I've ever written...

Hopefully, this fic was understandable...It's about 3 in the morning now so forgive me if it's not (I'll probably edit this tomorrow, so it might be better by then).

But please review and say what you think! Reviews are always helpful and welcome.


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